Doug Hauke of Hauke Honey explains the life of a beekeeper at his facility in Marshfield, Friday, June 27, 2014.
Megan McCormick/News-Herald Media

MARSHFIELD – The life of honeybees in the United States used to be much simpler, but now beekeepers are navigating a gauntlet of pesticides, diseases and a vast "agricultural desert" devoid of the pollen that serves to nurture bees.

When beekeeping was at its peak in the 1960s, there were about 4 million managed honeybee colonies in the United States, with about half that being managed by beekeepers today.

When President Richard Nixon opened up trade routes with China in the 1970s, that basically took out the honey industry in the United States, said Doug Hauke, owner of Hauke Honey in Marshfield, which manages about 3,000 honeybee colonies in three states during the year.

"Honey prices just fell in half, and fell way below the cost of production," he said. "How many beekeepers do you see? You don't see many young guys in bees anymore, because it's a lot harder to set up."

Beekeepers used to have to worry about one disease that infected their colonies, but the introduction of bees from around the world has brought numerous diseases specific to each species with them.

Meanwhile. with farmers turning to genetically modified corn and soybeans across the country, the switch has created a vast "agricultural desert" deprived of the pollen bees need to make honey and feed themselves.

When alfalfa and clover were grown in more abundance, a colony of bees could be expected to produce about 200 to 400 pounds of honey in a season. Today, beekeepers are lucky if they can produce about 100 pounds.

"Bees can overcome a lot of diseases. They are durable little insects, but then you have this agri-desert out there. There's nothing out there for them," Hauke said. "They're starving, and when they do go out there, they run into pesticides, and these new diseases. It's the perfect storm out there."

The hardest thing for beekeepers today is keeping their bees alive, said Randy Bohon, who manages about 2,500 colonies, transporting them to farms in Wisconsin and Florida to pollinate crops.

"A queen bee used to cost about $4 and last for about four to five years," Bohon said. "Right now, they cost about $20 per queen, and you're lucky if they last more than a year."

With all the issues honeybees are navigating, beekeepers are facing huge annual losses in their bee populations.

"The average losses in the U.S. has been about 30 percent, which is not sustainable for most beekeeping operations," Hauke said. "When you look at beekeepers, there are huge losses. We're one of the biggest (bee operations) in the state, but it's not because we're big; it's because all the big guys are gone. It's kind of telling someone you're the largest dairy farm in the state when you have 10 cows.